Yamaha announce the release of a budget R1S in the USA with cheaper components and lower rev limit, it will be available in two colors: Matte Gray and a White/Black/Red combo, both priced at $14,990. Interestingly, there’s no badging to identify this newest R1 as an S model.
There is no news on whether this lower spec bike will be made available in the UK or Europe as of yet, but we are waiting on info from Yamaha UK
Most of the R1 hardware is unchanged on the R1S. The chassis and suspension, as well as the titanium muffler and the trick electronics package that has a six-axis Inertial Measurement Unit and offers traction control, wheelie control, launch control, and even slide control programs, plus ABS. About the only R1 electronics aid not found on the R1S is the quickshifter, but it’s available as an option. Also notable: The new R1S wears Bridgestone Hypersport S20s, not the stickier Battlax RS10s.
Yamaha have not provided horsepower and torque figures for the new 2016 YZF-R1S, but the company did show a graph (without values, right) comparing the power curves of R1 versus new R1S. Up until super high rev most likely to be used on the track the horsepower for both bikes looks almost identical. But the R1S’s peak is slightly lower, because the S engine’s heaver parts mass keep it from revving as highly as the standard R1. And as for the torque, the R1S’s curve looks impressive, slightly better than the R1M’s until high revs.
Will be interesting to see torque and power figures when FTecu get one on a dyno, of course there will be FTecu FlashTune kits available on release of the bike and we will keep you up to date.
From a personal point of view I get the idea of the bike, for a roadbike it will have plenty enough go, for Europeans we will just have to keep a keen eye out for them when they come up for resale as the colours are nice but the value will be much lower than EU spec Yamaha R1 and of course the R1M.